God destroys the Egyptian gods through ten plagues

When it came time for the Israelites to leave Egypt it wasn’t an easy task. Pharaoh wasn’t about to let the Israelites go but it wasn’t up to Pharaoh. God had foretold of the Israelites time in Egypt way back in Genesis 15:13-16:

13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

Finally the time is up and the Israelites are to enter the Promised Land. What stands between them and that goal is Pharaoh who will not release them. So God institutes a series of ten plagues in order to get him to change his mind.

It may appear that the ten plagues that fall upon Egypt are simply disasters that bring the country to a screeching halt and make the people cry out for mercy. Nothing God does is random however and the ten plagues is no exception. The ten plagues are a direct attack on the gods of Egypt. God is showing Himself to be all powerful while the gods of the Egyptians are worthless and unable to help those who are crying out to them.

The first plague strikes the Nile River and all of the water in Egypt. The Nile River was by far the most important geographical feature in Egypt. Even today the vast majority of the population of Egypt is along the Nile River. Every year the Nile floods its banks and provides water for crops and otherwise makes the soil fertile in a land that is mostly desert.

The god Hapi was associated with the Nile River and the annual flooding is sometimes even considered the arrival of Hapi. One of his titles was Lord of the Fish and Birds. When the first plague strikes, all of the water of the Nile is turned to blood. This causes the fish to die and is overall disgusting from the stench throughout Egypt.

One might have tried to explain away the corruption of the Nile as a disaster of some sort that flowed downstream. But not only is the Nile turned to blood, so is all of the water in Egypt, including even what was just sitting in buckets according to Exodus 7:19.

The next plague is a plague of frogs. Frogs cover the entire land. Personally, I wouldn’t be too bothered by frogs. I wouldn’t like them everywhere but I can think of worse things to have all over the place. The irony of this plague is that frogs were a sacred animal in Egypt. The goddess Hekt was depicted with a head of a frog and often with the body of a frog as well. The Egyptians worshipped a frog so God gives them so many frogs that they become sick of them.

Because the frogs are considered a sacred animal, the Egyptians couldn’t do anything about them. They couldn’t kill them or otherwise get rid of them. Even though the magicians could make more frogs come up onto the land, they couldn’t do anything about the frogs all around them. Pharaoh has no option but to plead with Moses.

The third plague to strike the nation is gnats. Gnats don’t sound too bad until you remember that these would number in the millions. Also, these are not gnats like we probably think of. These are called sand flies or fleas. They burrow under the skin and cause irritation.

These gnats attack the Egyptian religion in several ways. Even though the pests are in the air, this is actually an attack against the earth god Geb because the gnats are formed from the dust of Egypt. Egypt was wealthy because it had fertile soil. All of the fertile soil is gone in an instant and instead it has become an irritant for the Egyptians.

The other thing that happens with this plague is the disruption of religious activities in Egypt. The gnats would cause the priests to be ceremonially unclean, either through their actual presence or by the scratches left by the people seeking relief from the itching.

Unlike the previous signs that Pharaoh has witnessed, the magicians are unable to reproduce what has taken place. They recognize that this is a power greater than their own.

When the magicians declare that “This is the finger of God” it could mean one of two things. They may be declaring that the infestation of gnats could only be done with the power of their god of insects Seb. If they believe that this is something that Seb has caused they would have reason to hate this god for what was occurring.

If the magicians recognize that this is the power of God, big G, then they are informing Pharaoh that this power is beyond them. Pharaoh would be wise not to cross a power that is above them and their gods. Once again however, Pharaoh’s heart is hard and he does not listen to Moses, nor his own magicians.

The gnats are not gone before the land of Egypt is covered in flies as well. God does something different with this additional plague however. God spares the land of Goshen where the Israelites live. They will not be harmed by this plague. It will be the same in the book of Revelation where tribulation believers are spared of some of the perils that fall on humanity.

Once again, this is a direct attack on an Egyptian goddess, Hatkok. He was worshipped as lord of the flies and he is shown to be powerless to help the Egyptians from what had befallen them. If they considered him to still be in power, then he would be the cause of the troubles and would be hated. He is either not the cause of the flies and powerless or he has brought calamity on the Egyptians and thus worthy of hatred.

Exodus 9 features the 5th, 6th, and 7th plagues. Plague number 5 is upon the livestock of Egypt. Bulls were among the most sacred animals in Egypt. One of the most popular cults worship Apis the bull god. Several temples kept live bulls there to be worshipped and at one point in Egypt’s history bulls were even given sacred burials and placed in vaults.

The pervasiveness of bull worship is seen as the Israelites construct a golden calf while waiting for Moses to return from Mt Sinai. Several other gods were depicted as cattle – Ptah, Hathor, Bakus, and Mentu. When Israel constructed their golden calf, it wasn’t to honor just one false god but many. This is why they said in Exodus 32:4

“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

God shows power over all livestock and the gods of Egypt are shown to be powerless to stop the deaths of one of the most sacred animals in Egypt. As with the plague of flies, God makes a distinction between Egypt and the Israelites. Not a single animal belonging to the Israelites died.

The next plague is the plague of boils. It was common for the ashes of a sacrifice to an idol to be cast into the air. Those whom the ashes landed on were considered to be blessed. This time the opposite occurs. Moses throws soot from a chimney in the air. As the ash descends, festering boils break out on the people and the animals all over the land. Obviously this is unpleasant for all who have to endure the painful boils but once again it strikes at the heart of the Egyptian religious culture.

Egypt was noted in the ancient world for its skill in medicine. This was attributed to their gods who were known to be gods of healing. Once again, this shows their impotence as they are unable to heal the boils that broke out over the people of Egypt. In particular, this is an attack of the god Typhon who was believed to control such diseases

The seventh plague is a plague of hail. Most of us have probably seen hail at some point in our life. Even small hail can cause a great deal of destruction but this is no ordinary hail storm. Verse 24 states that this is the worst storm that struck Egypt in its history. What is particularly interesting is that ordinarily it doesn’t storm in Egypt. They rarely even get rain and there are entire years where they may get no rain. So any kind of storm would be rare and this storm obviously is unprecedented.

Yet again, this is an attack of the Egyptian gods. Shu was the god of the atmosphere while Nut was the sky goddess. Both are powerless to stop the storm or protect anyone from it.

Plague number 8 is a plague of locusts. These locusts devour whatever wasn’t destroyed by the hail previously. There are over 90 varieties of locusts and any of them could cause devastation like the Bible tells when in groups so large. There have been swarms of locusts that are so big that they have blocked out the sun before. This swarm is even more massive than those large, naturally occurring swarms.

After the devastation is seen, once again it is evident that the gods of the Egyptians have failed them. Nepri, the grain god, Anubis, the guardian of the fields, and Min, deity of harvest and crops have not saved the Egyptians.

Plague number 9 really starts to hit the heart of Egyptian worship. Ra was known as the sun god and he was the most important of the gods whom the Egyptians worshipped. Ordinarily light defeats darkness. When you turn on a light, the darkness goes away. You can’t bring more darkness into a room to smother out the light that’s already there. God is in control of the laws of nature however and He can snuff out light with darkness and show the sun god to be powerless as well.

As for the actual plague, God may have used a natural phenomenon to bring about this supernatural plague. There is a yearly phenomenon known as khamsin where for 50 days in the spring the wind blows off of the Sahara Desert. For two or three days the wind really picks up, picking up sand and dust with it.

Now, consider the state of Egypt at this time. After all of the plagues, the land is devastated. All of the vegetation has been destroyed and there is nothing to hold the sand in place at all. What might have been a normal, yearly sandstorm came out of nowhere and darkened the sky for three days. This would have been an oppressive darkness. Today, when it is dark, we turn on a light and the darkness goes away. Even with lamps, they would have had little success. The wind would have made it impossible to keep the lamps lit. And even if they could keep them lit, the light would have reached a foot and reflected off of all the sand in the air.

The tenth plague is the killing of the firstborn males. It introduces the Passover to the Israelites but that is another important discussion for another time. Ra, the sun god may have been considered the most important god in Egyptian worship but Pharaoh himself was considered to be a god as well.

While living, Pharaoh was thought to be the embodiment of the god Horus. Upon his death, Pharaoh became the god Osiris or god of the underworld. The firstborn son of Pharaoh would be the next to become Pharaoh and thus a god as well.

The final plague on the firstborn will strike the house of Pharaoh and kill his son. God will show himself to be more powerful once again. Not only is God more powerful than all the other gods, only He is capable of striking one of these supposed gods dead.

The final score of the plagues is God 10, Egyptian gods 0. God has shown all of the gods to be worthless and powerless. They have done nothing to protect their worshippers because God holds all of the power.